News

In this issue, we entertain some inspiring solutions––both in-person and online––to the deepening crisis in education. We ask: What’s wrong? What’s needed? What’s coming? Along the way, we outline some novel approaches to traditional forms of educating adults and explore new approaches to educating youth and those responsible for teaching them.

CfA’s Online Newsletter Center & Periphery Spring 2022 From the Editor’s Notepad From the Editor’s Notepad Douglas Gerwin, Ph.D. Executive Director, CfA Dear Friends, After two years of being mostly online, Center for Anthroposophy (CfA) and its affiliated Waldorf Teacher Education Program at Antioch University New England are resuming in-person classes this summer. In all, a record 11 cohorts will be meeting in Wilton, New Hampshire, on the campus of High Mowing School: Two groups for Waldorf high school teacher training Three groups for Waldorf elementary teacher education Two groups for Antioch’s advanced transdisciplinary studies in healing education One group inaugurating CfA’s Kairos Institute with a program in “Emergency Pedagogy” with Bernd Ruf One group for Waldorf administrators and leadership training One group of Antioch students launching their doctoral studies in Waldorf education One-week Renewal Courses in professional development Add to this growing line-up CfA’s Explorations program in foundational studies and its regional Building Bridges satellite program for Waldorf teacher training, both of which meet during the school year, and you have the complete palette of courses on offer this year. Each of these programs is featured below, along with news of further fresh initiatives and developments on the move at CfA. Douglas GerwinExecutive DirectorCenter for Anthroposophy Dear Friends, After two years of being mostly online, Center for Anthroposophy (CfA) and its affiliated Waldorf Teacher Education Program at Antioch University New England are resuming in-person classes this summer. In all, a record 11 cohorts will be meeting in Wilton, New Hampshire, on the campus of High Mowing School: Two groups for Waldorf high school teacher training Three groups for Waldorf elementary teacher education Two groups for Antioch’s advanced transdisciplinary studies in healing education One group inaugurating CfA’s Kairos Institute with a program in “Emergency Pedagogy” with Bernd Ruf One group for Waldorf administrators and leadership training One group of Antioch students launching their doctoral studies in Waldorf education One-week Renewal Courses in professional development Add to this growing line-up CfA’s Explorations program in foundational studies and its regional Building Bridges satellite program for Waldorf teacher training, both of which meet during the school year, and you have the complete palette of courses on offer this year. Each of these programs is featured below, along with news of further fresh initiatives and developments on the move at CfA. Douglas GerwinExecutive DirectorCenter for Anthroposophy Douglas Gerwin, Ph.D. Executive Director of CfA Back in Person! As of June 2022, all of CfA’s summer programs are scheduled once again to be held “in person” on its summertime home base in Southern New Hampshire. “Discover Your Destiny – Practice Your Passion” A new banner greets visitors to CfA’s completely redesigned website and archived resources. At the same time, fresh images and ads depicting CfA programs have appeared across print and online media. Even the CfA logo is a little different, if you look carefully. To Be a Successful High School Teacher Apart from demonstrating a firm footing in one or more subjects, a high school teacher needs to be versed in the ways of three “PC’s” in order to succeed with teenagers. Be “Inspired” and “In Community” with Renewal Courses 2022 “Inspirations!” and “Return to Community!” represent the two overarching thematic banners of this year’s Renewal Courses –– the first week online, the second week once again in person. Kairos: Healing in a World of Need through Visual and Performing Arts Starting with Bernd Ruf’s course on “Emergency Pedagogy,” CfA’s Kairos Institute is launching the first of a multi-unit training this summer intended to treat and prevent trauma through the healing modalities of the arts. Explorations Online –– and Now International Thanks to its “live” online format, CfA’s Explorations Program in foundational studies now draws participants from across five continents. Homecoming Party for CfA and Antioch Alumni CfA/Antioch Alumni Association is hosting a Homecoming and Birthday Party this summer. Waldorf Leadership Program Graduates Its First Cohort The inaugural group of CfA’s new Waldorf Leadership Development completes its year-long program with a festive celebration. Building Bridges Both East and West After a year-long hiatus, CfA resumed its “Building Bridges” program this past September with a vibrant group of faculty and staff from the Northeast Woodland School in Conway, New Hampshire. Sign up to receive our Center & Periphery Newsletter! Name First Last Email By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive information from: Center for Anthroposophy, 233 Cannongate III Nashua, NH 03063. To revoke your consent, simply click on the  SafeUnsubscribe® link.Emails are serviced by Constant Contact. CAPTCHAPhoneThis field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. You’ll receive the newsletter via email.

Chris’ courses at CfA were prophetic and deeply stirred the lives of participants; his introductions to countless publications at SteinerBooks were inspirational.  Apart from being himself a prolific author, Chris “commissioned” Torin Finser’s School as a Journey in 1990, wrote the introduction to Douglas Gerwin’s For the Love of Literature, and encouraged numerous other authors over decades with his confidence, vision, and unconditional generosity of spirit.    Christopher Bamford, longtime faculty member of our Renewal Courses, former editor-in-chief of SteinerBooks, and friend and colleague to many at CfA, crossed the threshold on the morning of Friday 13 May 2022.  

Supplied with pencils, paper, paints, and brushes, Karine Munk Finser, Director of CfA’s newly founded Kairos Institute, flew to Scandinavia in mid-March to welcome Ukrainian refugees into her parents’ empty cottage on the Danish island of Bornholm and to begin administering a program of acute healing therapy to mothers and their young children. A licensed art therapist in the U.S., Karine was following up on her mother’s initiative to open her summer home to Ukrainian families seeking refuge on this Baltic island. Beyond housing and basic needs, Karine is offering them a therapeutic program based on “Emergency Pedagogy” pioneered by Bernd Ruf from the Parzival Zentrum in Germany. This program is designed to bring healing artistic elements of Waldorf education to traumatized children and their parents whose lives have been upended by war or natural catastrophes. A seven-year-old girl captured her feeling of release after fleeing her native Ukraine in a drawing she called, “Girl Crossing the Border”. Karine writes, “Notice the darkened sun, the dying flowers on the left, the empty darkness, the deep sorrowful world where everything weeps. The transition is beautifully marked with the dark clouds changing to white clouds and the sun’s return. The rainbow, eternal expression of hope and belonging. The greens, life returning. Most importantly, notice how the girl in the drawing stands and sadly watches the darkness but then, as she crosses the border, she begins to lighten.” Karine, who is also Director of Transdisciplinary Studies in Healing Education at Antioch University New England, will spend the rest of this month with Ukrainian mothers and their children on Bornholm, a remote island located east of Denmark in the Baltic Sea between Poland and the southern coast of Sweden. Bernd Ruf is scheduled to bring his multi-year training in “Emergency Pedagogy” for teachers and art therapists to CfA’s Kairos Institute in Wilton, New Hampshire, starting this summer as part of the Institute’s new program of Waldorf pedagogy through the healing arts. Details of this program can be found here. Those wishing to help Waldorf schools and their families in Ukraine can make donations directly to the Friends of Waldorf Education (Freunde der Erziehungskunst), which has already mobilized a worldwide network of financial and logistic support via its secure website here. 

In these trying days, the faculty and staff of CfA send their good thoughts and prayers to the Waldorf schools, parents, teachers, and especially the children of Ukraine. Here is one report on how they are faring.

Center & Periphery The Online Newsletter of the Center for Anthroposophy Winter | 2022 In This Issue   Dateline Freeport, ME: Passing the Baton of Waldorf High School Teacher Training    Dateline Wilton, NH: Preview of Renewal Courses for Summer 2022   Dateline Wilton, NH: Healing Children’s Trauma in a World of Need   Dateline Keene, NH: New Cycle of CfA’s Waldorf Leadership Development Course   Dateline Wilton, NH: “Explorations” Goes International   Dateline Wilton, NH: “Explorations” for High School Teachers, Too    Dateline Punxsutawney, PA: The Significance of Groundhog Day for High Schools   Dateline Wilton, NH: Taking Orders for Our Alumni Conversation Café  From the Editor’s Notepad Midway between winter solstice and spring equinox comes a potent period of gestation, during which time the earth begins to stir with intense yet still invisible growth. Likewise, at our Center for Anthroposophy, we are entering a season of immense yet still largely behind-the-scene activity in virtually all of our programs, which this year have grown to six with a seventh still to be seeded. In this issue of our thrice-yearly online newsletter, we preview changes in our established programs and sketch out some new ones about to be launched during the coming seasons. –– Douglas Gerwin Executive DirectorCenter for Anthroposophy Dateline Freeport, ME: Passing the Baton of Waldorf High School Teacher Training   CfA has chosen David Barham to assume the leadership of its Waldorf high school teacher education program starting next year, taking over from its founder, Douglas Gerwin. Here is a brief portrait of Douglas’ successor.    Known in some high school circles as “Cap’n Waldorf”, Douglas Gerwin has for the past quarter-century steered the helm of the Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program, a vehicle for training high school teachers that he launched in 1996 at the Center for Anthroposophy (CfA) and affiliated with the Waldorf program at Antioch University New England. During his time as founding leader of this specialized program, Douglas has welcomed aboard some 200 high school trainees from Waldorf schools across North America, as well as overseas from Latin and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia.  On this continent alone, alumni of this program are currently teaching in 33 of the 40 extant North American Waldorf high schools, as well as in some two dozen other schools and institutes here and abroad. Now, after 25 years on the bridge of this seasoned vessel, Douglas will begin to hand on the wheel to his successor, David Barham, who has been appointed Director of high school program starting in September 2022. Douglas will retain his other chief role at CfA as its Executive Director during a further year of transition. David will be heading up the sole program in the English-speaking world that focuses specifically on the preparation of Waldorf high school teachers in their subject specializations. At present the program––affectionately nicknamed “WHiSTEP”––offers six such areas, each led by seasoned and practicing Waldorf high school teachers with decades of experience in their specific subjects:  Arts & art history [ Patrick Stolfo ] Biology and earth science [ Michael Holdrege ] English language and literature [ David Sloan ] History and social studies [ Paul Gierlach ] Mathematics [ Jamie York ] Physics and chemistry [ Michael D’Aleo ]  In addition to Douglas Gerwin, the high school program includes long-standing faculty members who lead courses for all trainees, including Eurythmy [ Laura Radefeld ], Creative Speech [ Craig Giddens ], Music [ Meg Chittenden ], Spacial Dynamics [ Jan Lyndes ], and Painting [ Charles Andrade ], along with a wide circle of expert guest presenters and mentors. For the past 30 years, David Barham has worked in four North American Waldorf schools, including one in Mexico, dividing his tenure equally between elementary school class teaching and high school humanities. For the past decade he has taught English and history at the Maine Coast Waldorf School in Freeport, ME, where he currently resides. While teaching full time in schools, David has also served as College chair, high school faculty chair, trustee, and school delegate to the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA). In the fall of 2021, he was appointed to AWSNA’s Leadership Council as Leader for the Northeast/Quebec region.  A graduate with a Master’s degree in Waldorf education from Antioch University New England, David is currently completing a CfA certificate program in Waldorf Leadership Development. His undergraduate degree at Tufts University was in English and Religion. An ardent folk singer and guitar player, David formed an acoustical rock-n-roll band some years ago with the name “Almond Butters Band”, a five-person group that appears at local gigs. He also leads online seminars for AWSNA on reimagining the Waldorf high school humanities curriculum as well as workshops for elementary and high school teachers. David is married to Kelly, a Waldorf early childhood educator, and has had three children move through Waldorf education. David came to anthroposophy first as a biodynamic farmer, then as a worker at a Camphill village before signing on as a class teacher, initially at Pine Hill Waldorf School and later at the Maine Coast Waldorf School. In between he also taught high school humanities at High Mowing School and, for the past 12 years, at Maine Coast. In 2018, David used a half-year sabbatical to walk the entirety of the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain. “I knew I was ready for a new direction on my Waldorf vocational path, but could not clearly see the future,” he writes. “As I look back, I now see all of the changes that have led to this moment.” As WHiSTEP Director, David will be teaching not only prospective and practicing high school teachers but also adults in other programs sponsored by CfA, while keeping his hand active in the Waldorf high school classroom. CfA is fortunate to be welcoming David Barham into its leadership circle and adding his expertise to the line-up of senior-level high school instructors who constitute the full crew of the WHiSTEP faculty. David Barham     Dateline Wilton, NH: Preview of Renewal Courses for 2022 Karen Atkinson, Coordinator of CfA’s annual Renewal Courses, previews the coming summer of week-long professional development courses imbued with active engagement in the arts and anthroposophy.     Dear Friends and Colleagues, Recently, I ventured out on […]